Glitter Girl
by StarletOfTheForest
Summary: Kori Anders had it all. Riches, looks, popularity... what happens when a tragic event forces her to give up everything she once knew? AU RichKori VicKar TaraGarRae triangle
1. Chapter 1: Flowers of Death

The music pounded through my bedroom, an alarm clock that I didn't want to smash with a hammer. I got up and made my bed, taking extra care to tuck the comforter in tight.

Still in my cashmere, blue-and-green striped pajamas, I walked over to the windowsill and stared at the Gotham City skyline with emerald eyes. I curled a strand of red hair around my finger. I scowled at my hair. It separated me from my family, who were all amethyst-eyed, and had black hair. I'd been told I looked like my aunt Lauryn, who'd died before I was born from leukemia. I had never believed my parents, however, and suspected I'd been adopted. I picked at the stitching of my pajama top and trudged over to the closet, dreading another day of school.

It was autumn, my favorite season. I normally loved school, but sophomore year was already proving to be a lot more challenging than freshman. I'd skipped second grade, and nearly fifteen. My birthday was November 11, and the cut-off date was October 1.

Popularity was the one word that kept my life together. I was probably the most popular girl in school, following in Kami's footsteps. Like always.

I dressed in a shimmering lavender top with hip-hugger jeans. Quickly brushing on a thin coat of lipgloss and slipping on a pair of white boots, I rushed downstairs. On the way, I picked up my backpack. My stomach was rumbling like mad and I would have paid quadrillion dollars for a simple waffle.

What I saw at the bottom of the stairs made me stop dead in my tracks. At that moment, my perfect, flawless world collapsed.

I should have known that nothing in this entire universe was perfect.

Fresh and dried blood dyed the walls a sickening red, a far cry from the cheerful buttery yellow it had been the night before. Three lifeless bodies littered the wooden floor. Bones where all over, as numerous as if they were the chicken bones from someone's meal. The unearthly faces of my younger brother and parents looked eerily back at me.

Panic and fear overtook me. I stood there, paralyzed, for what seemed like eternity. Finally, I reached for the phone and dialed a familiar number.

"Hello?"

"Kami…"

"Yes, sister dear?" I could hear the hint of impatience in my older sister's voice. Kami was a freshman in college, and probably had been leaving her apartment when I called.

"Mom… Dad… Ryan…" I couldn't finish. Hanging up, I fell to the ground and cried myriad tears.

The day matched my depressed mood exactly. October 31st, the most terrifying holiday of the year. Now it was the day nearly my whole family was buried.

My black dress rustled in the wind. Raindrops fell from the cloudy sky, the color of ashes. Tears from the people around me mingled with the rain, but I refused to cry.

Crying only brought pain.

The graveyard was near a lake. I looked out at the cerulean waters, lapping the bank like a dog licking. My melancholy was inevitable, and most people kept away from me, instead chatting to Kami.

Someone, a man, put his hand on my shoulder. "Such a terrible loss… you and your sister must be heartbroken. You two are only fourteen and eighteen, much too small to care for yourselves…"

I jerked myself away. "I'm nearly fifteen." As I walked away, I could hear him muttering. "That doesn't sound like the sweet Korinne I knew at all… in fact, she sounds just like Kamilla."

More than anything, Kami and I loathed our real names. We'd always called each other Kami and Kori affectionately, and our given names were normally nonexistent.

The caskets were lowered into the graves. I felt hot tears spring to my eyes, like getting pricked with thousands of needles at once.

A minister droned on and on, and I wanted to throw a cinderblock at his head. Who knew someone could actually be so boring?

As his tedious speech drew to an end, Kami and I placed flowers on top of the coffins. My mother had loved flowers, hence our names, Kamilla Lily and Korinne Rose. She loved unusual names, and with the exception of our brother, they were pretty uncommon.

Dirt was piled firmly on top, and that was it.

They were gone.

All the cars left, and the cemetery resembled a ghost town. Metaphorically speaking, it was a ghost town, if you were superstitious. A group of social workers stood around, vaguely reminding me of pesky ants that you wanted no more than to flick them away.

"Kamilla and Korinne are too young to take care of themselves. I vote we place them in foster care."

"Kamilla is eighteen, and fully capable of caring for herself. It's Korinne we should worry about."

"Where will she go? An orphanage, I suppose."

Anger rose through my body. "I'm NOT going to an orphanage!" Kami, who was not far off, nodded in approval and messed with her jet-black hair, vastly different from my fiery locks.

"Then where are you going to go? A pretty little girl like you-"

I scowled and interjected once again. "I could live with my sister, ever thought of that?" My natural chipper nature was fading away, slipping through my fingers.

'_Idiots,'_ I thought crossly.

"Very well." They left, leaving Kami and I to drive to my new home.

Staring out the window of Kami's red Ferrari, I sighed. I couldn't get the picture of their bodies lying on the floor out of my mind.

I suppressed a scream. The blood… crunched bones covering the floor like sand on a beach… I could feel the pain. I wanted to fall to the ground and cry.

Why was I spared?

I vowed to enjoy life. My parents would have liked me to stay as perky as possible, and I didn't want to let them down.

Little did I know; I'd break that promise.

A/N: Well, that's the first chapter of Glitter Girl! I hope you liked it! Please review. ;D


	2. Chapter 2: School Isn't Everything

"Korinne Anders?"

School. Every time I heard that word, it was like getting a shot. Homeroom was already something to dread, most of the students whispering sympathetic words. Couldn't they understand that I wanted to be left alone?

"Here."

"Oh, I'm so sorry for your loss, Korinne."

Here we go again.

"It's okay," I mumbled, mentally adding a _'Leave me alone'_. She proceeded with the role call, and the bell rang after a few monotonous minutes. I was the first to leave, rushing out of the classroom as if there was a fire in it.

As I exited, Kimberly Moth, known to the public as Kitten, walked over and shoved the books out of my arms. I looked at her curiously. _'Wasn't she my best friend just last week?'_

"Since your parents are gone, Anders, you're officially a geek." She spun on her heel and trotted off to first period, followed by wanna-bees Tara Markov, Karen Beecher, and surprisingly the semi-gothic, formerly non-popular Rachel Roth.

'_Rachel and Kitten are friends? This can't be good; Rachel's hated me since fourth grade when I accidentally sprayed frog guts on her shirt when we were dissecting… That was fun. Then again, it's not fun, since they're going to do anything and everything to take me down.'_

I smiled grimly, shaking my head solemnly. "At least they're not in many of my classes." I knelt to the floor to pick up some books, and found myself getting them handed to me. "Thank you," I said shyly, tucking a lock of unruly red hair behind my ear.

"You're welcome." I glanced up and managed to get a good look at him.

He was hot. With spiked ebony hair with sunglass-covered eyes, he was the very _definition_ of hot.

"Want to sit with me at lunch?" I nodded, blushing slightly. I recognized him from a few of my classes, namely my AP classes. "Kori, right?"

"Yes. Richard Grayson?"

"Yeah. Well, see you at lunch!" He left, making me wish desperately for English class.

The rest of the morning passed uneventfully. I luckily avoided Kitten and her Wanna-Bee Kitten Club, which let me breath a sigh of relief.

I wandered into the cafeteria, scanning the cliques for Richard. I spotted him sitting at a lone table, next to an odd teen with greenish hair and a mischievous atmosphere around him. Walking over, all eyes unluckily on me, I took a seat next to him.

"Hi, I'm Kori."

"Garfield Logan, nice to meet you. Meat is a waste of time. Up with tofu and soy. Animals rule."

"Those are his mottos," Richard told me, shooting a look at Garfield.

I suppressed a snicker. "Catty much, hey Gar?"

"Hey! Despite all of your thinkings, I'm NOT a cat! Plus, I like dogs way better."

Richard eyed Garfield. "Despite is a big word, are you sure we have the right Garfield here?"

I raised my eyebrow. "Thinkings is not a word…"

"Dude, I am so Gar, and it so is!"

"Look it up in the dictionary."

"It's not like I carry one around with me! Who does?"

I produced a pocket-sized dictionary from my purse.

Garfield groaned. "Great, now I'm stuck with two smart people!" Richard and I hid smiles. I caught his eye and he flashed me a thumbs-up.

They finally allowed us to get our lunches, Richard a pizza, me a simple salad. As Richard and I progressed slowly back to our table, Victor Stone, big man on campus and major jock, stuck his foot out and promptly tripped him.

The whole tenth grade burst into laughter.

I helped Richard up. _'Stupid imbeciles. They seemed to worship me on Friday, a new week and I'm old news.'_

Fortunately his lunch hadn't spilled, and we ate in peace. That is, until someone started a food fight by chucking some macaroni at Emma Darwin's head.

Garfield joined in enthusiastically, and was throwing a carrot as the principal walked in. Two other boys besides him got a morning detention for a month. He looked dejectedly at me, like a wounded puppy. "Garfield, I'm not doing your detention for you, and neither is Richard."

"Fine, wusses."

Lunch ended and the periods after it flew by. However, I wasn't so blessed at the end of the day.

I entered Foreign History, a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. Mr. Molder, the teacher, greeted me (a first for any student) and I rolled my eyes. We called him Old Moldy because he annoyed everyone so much, especially with truckloads of homework every night. As I sat down, I remembered something that made me cringe and feel like throwing up.

Kitten and Tara just _had _to be in this class, didn't they?

"Nice clothes Anders, going Goth?" Tara giggled, her laugh high-pitched and irritating. I looked down at my black attire and sighed.

"It's called mourning, Kitten."

"And why would you need to mourn? Your good-for-nothing- " I punched her in the nose. "OW! YOU LITTLE BITCH!"

"Serves you right," I muttered.

"MISS ANDERS!" I turned around to be faced with a very irked history teacher. "Detention, after school!" Old Moldy was all red in the face, resembling a wrinkled, rotten tomato.

Yes, my life was going perfectly. "She insulted-"

"TAKE YOUR SEAT, MISS ANDERS, SO WE CAN CONTINUE WITH THE LESSON!" I mentally stuck my tongue out at him and sat down as Kitten rushed from the room, accompanied by a hysterical Tara. Blood poured freely from Kitten's nose and they were screaming something about calling 911. I rolled my eyes.

The blood… the same type that had covered my living room… my eyes grew wide, and I was thankful when the bell rang for the end of the day. I ran home, not bothering to wait for the buses, and into the bathroom, beginning to scream. I was grateful that Kami wasn't home yet.

I guess school isn't everything, but up until now, most of my life had revolved around it.

A/N: Kinda odd chapter, but I hope it was okay. Please review! (Thanks to all that already have.) Catch ya later! (Red X ROCKS.) –StarletOfTheForest


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